I have a Macbook Air on the way i7/8/256 which will be my first Mac. Over the weekend I found a great deal on a Sony HDR-CX260V which appears to be and is reviewed as a good camcorder. However, I have since read a number of sources that state the HQ mode requires the video to be converted via Handbrake. Can someone recommend a nice Sony that is compatible without conversion >$500? I have lived with DVC and a very old Dell desktop for too long. I will likely upgrade to Final Cut at a later time. I do not mind video conversion for specific applications, would just rather not have to for each video I download.

As far as I can see, that particular camcorder records in AVCHD (couldn't get more details than that). Final Cut Pro X can import AVCHD without the need the transcode. If you intend to use FCP 7, might be a different story - I never had the need to import AVCHD into FCP 7, but since making the switch to FCPX I had no issues.